RHS girl cagers fall to Lady Jays

If fans like low-scoring games, they would have loved Monday's non-conference matchup between the Rolla and Jefferson City high school girls' basketball squads at the RHS gym.

The two teams combined to make just 25 field goals. However, the difference was at the free throw line - the Jefferson City Lady Jays connected on 18-of-33 attempts - and that was enough for the visitors to secure a 42-31 victory at the RHS gym.

Jefferson City struggled through a 3-24 nightmare last season. After Monday night, however, the Lady Jays are just one victory shy of matching last season's win total.Jefferson City improves to 2-1 while Rolla falls to 0-2.

Certainly no scoring records were in danger of being broken on Monday, as both teams struggled mightily with their shooting touch.

Jefferson City led 8-6 after one period and the two teams split 14 second-quarter points. The Lady Bulldogs went into halftime down 15-13.

RHS senior forward Gabe Otte hit a driving layup to open the third period and tie the game at 15. However, the Lady Jays then went on a 12-3 run. And a pair of free throws by sophomore Megan Foster upped Jefferson City's edge to nine, 27-18.

Senior forward Madison Collier converted a Lady Jay turnover into a layup to end the third period and cut the Lady Bulldog deficit to 27-20.

Rolla would make one more run. RHS outscored the Lady Jays 9-3 over the first five minutes of the fourth period. Lady Bulldog senior forward Megan Neal hit both ends of one-and-one free throws to cut the Jefferson City edge to three, 32-29.

The Lady Jays went 8-of-13 from the free throw line in the final 2:59 to hold on, as Rolla managed just two points during that span.

"Give credit to Jefferson City," said RHS head coach Bryce Swafford. "They stayed with their game plan and also were able to run with us and get us in a lot of foul trouble. Defensively we didn't have our best game; we definitely allowed too many second-chance shots.

"Jefferson City is extremely athletic and was able to outman us at the majority of positions."

Collier led Rolla with eight points. The Lady Bulldogs had three players who fouled out and another who finished with four fouls. And RHS started the game short-handed, as sophomore forward Caroline Victor was out with the flu.

In the junior varsity game sophomore forward Sabrina Morris hit a layup at the buzzer off a Megann Temple assist to give Rolla a 37-36 victory.

The jayvee Lady Jays scored a basket to take a 36-35 lead. Rolla then charged up court and Morris got off the game-winning layup at the buzzer.

Jefferson City led the jayvee game 14-6 after one period and Rolla took a 23-21 halftime edge. RHS trailed 28-25 entering the fourth quarter.

Junior Amber Walters led Rolla with nine points while freshman Addy Brow and junior Megan Studdard each had eight points.

The Lady Bulldogs will host defending Class 5 state champion Columbia Rock Bridge Thursday at the RHS gym. The jayvee game is to begin at 6 p.m. with the varsity contest to follow.